This deck/book set claims to combine tarot, Native American spirituality and the Tree
of Life. The cards are larger than average at 3 7/16" X 5 1/8". The deck seems
to have a lot of the detritus from the cutting process still attached to the cards so that
they shed bits of cardstock when you use them. The art is good. It is nicely detailed and
makes good use of color. The Major Arcana have been renamed and are referred to as
"Life Path Cards." They are not numbered, but do have an implicit order based on
the "Journey of the Brave." This order does not correspond to the traditional
Major Arcana order. An additional card has been added, bringing the total to 23.

1 - Brave

9 - Inner Power

17 - New Life

2 - Chief

10 - Awakening

18 - Star Woman

3 - Cornmother

11 - Sacred Hoop

19 - Grandfather Sun

4 - Heyokah

12 - Sun Ritual

20 - The Calling

5 - Keeper

13 - Twisted Hair

21 - Council

6 - Shaman

14 - Image Shatterer

22 - Village

7 - Shaman's Drum

15 - Shadow Dancer

23 - Warrior

8 - Trail maker

16 - Passage of Time

A correlation can readily be seen between most of the Life Path Card descriptions and
the Major Arcana. The Brave sounds like the Fool. The Chief and Cornmother are his parents, and are like the Emperor and Empress. Heyokah is the Trickster (Magician). The Keeper "holding the
secrets of visions and dreams," sounds like the High Priestess.

The Minor Arcana are called "Totem Cards." The suits are Eagle/Air,
Wolf/Fire, Bear/Water, and Buffalo/Earth. The Ace of each suit is called the dancer. The
court consists of Maiden, Warrior, Matriarch and Patriarch. Ace through ten are associated
with their corresponding Sephira on the Tree of Life. The court cards are associated with
the zodiac signs for their element, though it is not explained exactly how this
correspondence works. For example the book states: "Patriarch,
Matriarch, Warrior and Maiden of Eagles. These are linked with arrows and the signs of
Gemini, Libra and Aquarius." How are they linked? Do all three signs
apply to every card in the suit? We are not told.

Another thing I found confusing was having a court card called "Warrior" and
a Life Path card called "Warrior." In the Life Path cards, he has gone through
the Life Path challenges and emerged a stronger person"...who
has tempered [the] personality, entered into a relationship with [the] Higher Self, and
integrated [the] unconscious motives with the conscious recognition." Has
the Warrior court card achieved the same? It doesn't sound like it when you read the
meanings for the Warrior court cards.

The book that accompanies this deck is a hard-cover book of slightly more than 200
pages. It begins with an introduction that gives a brief overview of the deck and
describes what the author was trying to achieve. A synopsis of the journey of the Brave is
provided here as well. Chapter One - The Quester Life Path Cards provides a more
detailed description of the Brave's Journey. Chapter Two - Card Interpretations
has the card meanings. Each card meaning describes the card, and gives some
correspondences like the planet and archetype. The astrological correspondences are not
always the "traditional" Golden Dawn correspondences. Rather than use planets
and signs like the Golden Dawn, this deck only uses planets. So the Chief (Emperor), which
the Golden Dawn associates with Aries, corresponds with Mars - Aries' ruling planet. The
Shaman (Hierophant) is assigned to Venus, vice Taurus. While most of the card meanings are
similar to those by Waite/Golden Dawn, there are some differences. A "Positive
Application" (meaning) and a "Negative Application" are provided. The
author's recommended method of laying the cards on a flat surface and moving them around
(swishing) results in some cards being reversed. The backs are
not designed for this and reversed cards will be apparent when shuffling. The applications
are followed by a brief meditation.

Chapter Three - Totem Cards describes the court cards and the Ace/Dancer
through ten of each suit. Each card has a brief description, followed by Positive and
Negative Attributions. The Totem card meanings are very traditional and could be applied
to the Waite Deck. This brings me to the fact that the pictures of animals are not well
suited for describing Waite's meanings. Take the Two of Eagles.
The image is that of an eagle perched on a tree stump that has been pierced by an arrow.
The eagle could be described as looking wary and alert. The meaning given is:

I just don't see much of this in the image for the card. Most of the meanings given
describe very human situations and problems. Why foist them upon this poor creature? The Four of Eagles shows a mother bird feeding her hatchlings in
their nest. The meaning includes retreat; rest; recovery; withdrawal; isolation;
meditation; reflection. Sorry, but I just don't see that in this image. Some cards are
more successful at depicting the meaning than others. The Five of
Eagles shows two birds engaged in battle. The Six of Eagles
shows an empty canoe at the bottom of a waterfall. Obviously, this is derived from Pamela
Colman-Smith's image of a boat. However, the meanings given - past problems overcome;
optimism; travel; looking ahead; hope; etc... do not jibe with this picture. To me, this
picture looks like the aftermath of a tragedy, where the boat has gone over the falls and
lost its occupants in the process. I could continue, but you get the picture. While the
art is very nicely done, it is difficult to get the animals in a nature setting to portray
the range of meanings possible when using humans in a variety of settings. The
artist is forced to pick one meaning and do his best to portray it, while maintaining the
dignity of the animal and the realism of nature, or he is forced into a Pamela
Colman-Smith-like scene like the Six of Eagles or Ten of Wolves.

The court cards are more successful, although I don't know what is going on with the
scantily clad Matriarch of Bears. Chapter Four - The Spreads,
provides five new spreads created for this deck as well as the Tree of Life Spread. Chapter
Five - The Tree of Life, and Chapter Six - Pathworking, discuss the
Qabalistic Tree of Life with a little bit of Jung (a very little bit) thrown in, as well. Chapter
Seven - The Triads is a system where cards are looked at in groups of three as placed
on a diagram that looks like an extended Tree of Life. An appendix provides lists of
correspondences for each Life Path card, including traditional tarot card, astrological
att [sic], animals, colors, precious stones, perfumes, plants, sexual att [sic], and
focus. There is also a section on numerology and a detailed description of the image on
the front cover of the book. Apparently, the cover was changed since publication, because
the image on my front cover is the same as that shown on the card backs.

This deck promises much, and tries to deliver, but it has taken on an all but
impossible task. Native American culture and spirituality is a huge area by itself. There
are many tribes and many different belief systems. The only way to make this manageable is
to to create some type of generic "Native American Tradition." In reality, there
is no such thing. The author highlights some similarities between her mythical Native
American Tradition and the Western Mystery Tradition. There are some, but not enough of
them to be melded seamlessly into a Tarot deck. The use of animal imagery obfuscates the
card meanings. Changing the names of the Major Arcana cards, yet trying to maintain some
semblance of the traditional meanings, further complicates this deck. Taking a sacred
Native American tradition, like the Lakota Sun Dance,
and making it correspond to the Hanged Man (Sun Dancer) does little to shed light on
either, in this reviewer's opinion. I think that the author would have been better
off just creating a new system to describe the journey of the Brave though his
transition toWarrior rather than trying to force it on a system that wasn't designed for
it. The information on Qabala tries to explain the system in a simple manner, but this is
not simple material and the Native American slant just adds an additional layer of meaning
to learn. The box promises "...information on the Qabbalah and Jungian
Archetypes." The Jungian section is only a few pages long and is cursory, at best. On
a more positive note, the story of the Brave's Journey is an entertaining one, if one
keeps in mind that it is fictional and represents the author's personal take.

I don't know whom to recommend this deck to. Beginners who encounter this deck as their
first will spend a great deal of time learning a system that, despite its claim of kinship
with the Western Mystery Tradition, is very idiosyncratic. The Native American theme that
the deck is built upon is a fiction devised by the author. Those who are familiar with the
Qabala and the Golden Dawn tradition could possibly glean some interesting insights from
the author's views. If you are already familiar with the meanings for the Waite deck, you
will have a very small learning curve, as these meanings would work with that deck as
well. The problem you might encounter is relating these meanings to the often
non-evocative animal imagery.